Herman Ng is President of The e-sports Association (Singapore). IeSF interviewed him to introduce him and what he has been doing in e-sports field.
- How long have you been working in e-sports field and what motivation brought you into this field?
It has been about 10 years since I started working in the e-Sports industry. Before that I was a competitive player myself in games like Counter-Strike 1.6 and WarcraftIII. From a player I moved into setting up a WarcarftIII community forum and that was where my motivation started. The lack of support for e-Sports in Singapore and South East Asia prompted me that we needed more events and communities to grow the scene.
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2. Please tell us briefly about beginning, history, and current status of e-sports market in Singapore.
Similar to many market, e-Sports in Singapore started with Counter-Strike 1.6, Starcraft and move to games like WarcraftIII, FIFA etc. Since then, e-Sports have evolved into more and more games on various platforms like online, mobile, console etc. In Singapore currently, popular e-Sports titles include DOTA All-Stars, Starcraft2 and FIFA.
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3. Please give us introduction of the e-Sports Association (Singapore) and major projects of it.
? The e-Sports Association (Singapore) is dedicated to the promotion and growth of e-sports in Singapore. To develop Singapore into an international hub for e-sports excellence, our mission is to connect individuals and organizations interested and involved in e-sports. To build meaningful relationship among the stakeholders in e-sports and to encourage professional growth for the e-sports community and industry in Singapore.?Currently we are looking at standardization of e-Sports rules & regulations and e-Sports events in Singapore
- If there is any difficulties or obstacles to operate national league and manage a national federation?
Surely, difficulties lies in the acceptance of e-Sports to be something similar to a sports where is it widely recognize as a mainstream activity instead of a niche market where currently there is a lack of media and broadcast support.
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5. What do you think is crucial and necessary to make a national federation better?
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Like-minded people with common directions and initiatives for e-Sports in the association is the most crucial factor to make it better. It is always about the general majority of the industry and not about individuals.
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6. What do you think should necessarily be taken to raise and develop e-sports in Asia?
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Strong support from common game publishers willing to promote a popular e-Sports title in Asia backed by strong media and broadcast from various channels would be the key to the development of e-Sports in Asia.
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7. If there is any recommendation or supplement point that you want to comment on IeSF for being the global leader of e-sports, please tell us.
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e-Sports is all about passion and IeSF have to be driven by the passions of associations all over the world!
